England, many many Motorcycles and Horizons Unlimited UK

Time is nearly out.. I must get to England!  Another overnight ferry (I wish I kept count of the ferries on this trip!) to get across from Rotterdam Holland to Harwich England.. which as normal sails through the night and arrives very early in the morning the next day.  Off the boat and a mad dash of around 320 km to Ripley England to attend my first ever world famous Horizons Unlimited meeting!

Another country, another language.. and it's English!  Boy does it hit you when you see road signs in English and can have meaningful conversations with the people at the fuel station!  I immediately thought, this won't be as fun.. far too easy in English.. ha!  (I've been gone too long I think)

When I first decided to do this motorcycle journey, one of the first places on the internet I found with the majority of info I needed to arm myself was at www.horizonsunlimited.com

Most of you know about HU, but for those of you who don't, they have meetings all over the world bringing people together who love motorcycle adventures!  This one in Ripley just happens to be the largest one and perfect for it to be here now.  I can meet so many incredible adventurers and then get my butt down to Heathrow airport where I have booked a flight.

Danny stole my bike!  (as a very confident woman passes him!...that's karma, Danny!

Bikes arrive this meeting in all shapes and sizes.. you can go on a moto adventure on any dag gone thing you can think of! ;-)

An Australian postie bike..

A sports bike.. Sjaak Lucassen on Yamaha R1 has done 75 countries in 5 years on this bike!  Including ice and snow.. and the Amazon jungle!  I shall never complain again about how difficult the road is on my bike.. ha!

Or this one.. imagine going up the mountain on this!

You can learn how to do anything here at Horizons Unlimited..

Learn to ride and fly!

Learn to waterproof your tent!  (Donkey shed and shit not included in purchase)

Sheonagh and Pat's tent ;-)  They are always teaching me something..

And not to mention all the other amazing heroes I'd seen on the internet or HU DVD's are here.. this place is full of them, I'm so lucky to meet in person!

Grant Johnson (co-founder Horizons Unlimited)

Lois Pryce and Austin Vince

Sam Manicom

Captain Magadan himself.. hey, didn't I just see you in Holland?

 Stalker..  ;-)  Just kidding, Walter gave an excellent presentation on .. guess what!  Siberia!  www.sibirskyextreme.com

Every single person I meet here has the greatest stories to tell.. lots of presentations to learn more.. This is the place for me to be for sure..

It is, however BYOS..  (Bring Your Own Squirrel)

 

or anything else you find dead along the road.. Helen bothered to pick up a dead deer!  Luckily she came in a van..

After a super full, super fun weekend, it's time to pack up and go..

Luckily Shoenagh and Pat have a friend and host for me to stay with near Heathrow airport to get organized for the transfer, so on 'yer bikes!

They escort me through England to go to stay at Janet's house..

Sheonagh explains this is the Swarkestone causeway, just south of Derby, built in the thirteenth century. It is the longest stone bridge in England.

Janet, a close friend had ridden a motorcycle overseas with Shoenagh in the 1970's..!  Knowing how much it is a surprise for some people to see a woman traveling by motorcycle, I can only imagine the response these girls got back then.. amazing inspiration they are!

One thing anybody on a motorcycle has told me is to visit the Ace Cafe while in London.. great meeting place for bikers. I asked Janet about it and she had never been there herself!  Sounds like this is the place to see today.  (By the way, I have time to do this because I have just dropped my bike off to the shipping agent who needed the bike at least 3 days before shipping... it's gone, hopefully to be seen again in Nova Scotia Canada in a few days time..)

Now, back to the cafe!

After lunch with Janet, I took a train into Central London.  Quite honestly didn't want to go, I have a million other things to do, but I thought I might regret being so close and not having a look. 

I regretfully must admit that at this point in my journey, I'm quite tired of big important things to see.. It's a horrible place to come to, as we were just discussing last night.  I have recently become completely blaze' about these things.. hopefully it's just a phase and will return after I have a few days off the bike..

What did excite me in the city was a complete M&M shop!  I never knew there was a whole shop dedicated to the M&M!!  I'm in loooooove.... so I thought. I went in search of my most favorite M&M of all time, dark chocolate mint.. they come in all different shades of "cooties" green.. (I can't remember why it was taboo to eat the green ones when young, but if you did, it gave you cooties.. ?)  I could not believe they don't have this flavor here.. in the largest M&M shop I've ever seen!!?? Oh well.. I walked away empty handed.. but still fun to be amongst lots of candy..

Then another great thrill was stumbling on to the National Geographic Society building..  oh man!  This is super love even beyond the M&M!!

Great wall of inspiration inside..  so many of the greatest adventurers of the world..  I didn't see any on motorcycles though.. we must change that! ;-)






Ah yes, pomp and circumstance.. and important things..

So this is Londontown..  ;-)

Must get myself packed and prepared for North America.. see you in Canada!

Sokcho South Korea

And on top of that.. a Welcoming Committee!!
(photo is not on actual arrival.. but wish I had got one.. Both these English ladies had on their Australia shirts - they have great taste!)

And after several days on my own, it was great to have someone to speak "English" with..

Anyway, these amazing adventurers (Sheonagh Ravensdale and Pat Thomson) contacted me by email yesterday in Samcheok.  I had sort of heard about them being in Korea and they about me, and through a contact in Japan, they got my email address.

And so glad they did!

I had first seen them months ago on my Horizon's Unlimited prep DVD's, clearly remember Sheonagh admitting on tape to sneaking in more pairs of underwear to her pack than she was meant to take... ! (If she can do it, I can do it!!)

Sorry, I'm waffling on... I must divert you back quickly to my time in Samcheok.. if I don't do it now, I will forget - and I don't want to cut a whole chunk out of my Korea blog. You would miss a lot with how small this country is.!

Korea is very mountainous, and I had some beautiful riding around this area in particular.

Stopped off a Asia's largest cave, Hwanseongul Cave.

Absolutely gorgeous and mammoth (reminding me of Mammoth Cave in Tennessee USA).. the Koreans sure know how to light it up!  It could pass for Hwanseongul Night Club!

And the quirky names included:

This is the Valley of Desire  

A rather odd experience in cave adventures, but I'm always up for trying something new!  I do have a rather cocky comment to make.. with the mass amount of Love Hotels in this country, not joking, they rival the amount of restaurants here.. AND with the mass amount of population in such a small space: 48,607,000.. and here is what Wikipedia says: South Koreans have had to learn to live peacefully with each other in small, crowded spaces, in which the competition for limited resources, including space itself, is intense. Continued population growth means that the shortage of space for living and working will grow more severe. 

My cocky comment is that I'm not surprised about the population problem!  The Hotels, the Valley of Desires, and this!

Where you go to proclaim your love for one another on the beach..

(I actually quite like this one.. well all of them really)... I'm just sayin'..

Now, back to Pat and Sheonagh.. once I got their email we worked out I was only about 100 km away in Samcheok, and they were staying at the same Hostel I reserved for on the 12th.. since they were leaving, I came here a day early.

Rode through pouring pouring rain the whole way.. but it was well worth it!  These 2 have traveled all over the world, and many times on motorcycle, and they had such great stories and advice to share.. I was soaking it up!  And off to dinner we went.. (yes, I ate the Korean food, and it was a delicious bbq meal!)

Next morning, it is time for them to pack up.

This is actually really great for me, because so far, even though I have had loads of great advice from many other bikers,  I have never actually been around any other motorbike world travelers currently living on the road.  And to watch and learn is huge for me!  Checking the tires, oil, packing up.. the whole bit I've been doing, but honestly just winging it..

We say our goodbyes and Sheonagh shares one last tip... "Make sure if you fall over, that you get a photo before you pick it up.. people love those photos!"

I am such a slow learner...!!!!!

Shortly after, Sheonagh gets on her bike, and falls right over!  I put my camera down and run over to help pick her up and she's shouting right out... "Get a photo!  Get a photo!"  Of coarse!  What was I thinking!

All good, a soft cushion of bushes to catch her.. and after that I won't forget again!  Such good teachers they are!!

And off they went..

Thank YOU!!  Hope to see you again!!